So I just poked my head in to ask about A/B but I guess I have an answer.
Yep unfortunately I suspect this is gunna turn out to be pretty widespread. Just judging by the amount of people I've seen mentioning "small amounts of noise in the quiet parts" or "a few pops"... I'm willing to bet these are all different variations of the same issue, some worse, some better. This is the shit that happens with so many GZ pressings....
I'll tell ya what though, this is a really interesting example of how different types of stylus diamond tips react to bad pressings, and likely why in many cases some people almost never have issues and others are constantly coming across bad pressings. I got home and I swapped my Ortofon Black stylus which is a Shibata diamond, over to a virtually unused Ortofon Bronze which is a Nude Fine Line diamond, and I played the same trouble passages from Spiritualized Side A and B. On the Black the right channel distortion was awful, unlistenable to me, across Track 3 on both sides A and B. So I swapped over to the Bronze and played the same songs. On Side A while the distortion was still present it was MUCH less pronounced, much less severe, and until the last couple minutes of the song it almost was camouflaged by the normal distortion and noise that's present on the song. Once I got to the last couple minutes it became more obvious but prior to that it was nowhere near as severe. And on Side B I couldn't hear it at all upon first listening. So while the pressing is jacked, on some carts and needles it'll sound fine. And on others, it'll sound like garbage. I imagine if I dialed back to something with a Nude Elliptical tip the distortion would fall even further into the background.
Glad to hear this part, I have been really looking forward to getting the Rollins, if it ever turns up of course.
I cleaned the ever loving hell out of mine and managed to get rid of all but the very worst of the noise, so now other than Side A end of track 3 and Side 2 Track 3 it plays clean. So clean it well.
Hahaha well I suspect most of them have pops, the thing to look for from what I've seen is right channel distortion and buzzing at the end of track 3 side 1.
MMine is clean at T3 on side 1. Though, that section of the track is definitely not crystal clear. Somewhat muddy, especially background vocals
Oh completely muddy, but that's pretty much what that track sounds like.
He does have a cart/stylus that is notorious for doing the opposite of hiding surface noise. That doesn't mean it should be there, and it certainly isn't his fault, but some people dislike the cart for that reason.
Hey man, don't let my horrid track record scare you off!
Hell get him a Crosley suitcase unit. Then everything will sound equally bad
Completely. I know it's partly the cart. No skips though, ever. I might be happier in some cases but the good pressings are... Incredible. I honestly can't imagine them sounding better. It's worth it for that.
im surprised he hasn't moved to moving coil yet since he is far up in the high level audiophile zone.